April 14, 2017 by IdealisticRebel

What gives White Men to the right to take away a woman’s right to basic health care?

Make no mistake, this is not about abortion, no matter how many times Republicans say so. It’s about health screenings, for breast cancer and cervical cancer; for prenatal care; for child care and immunizations; mammograms; screening for sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDs; proper use of contraceptives; for the right of Americans who do not have paid healthcare to still be well and safe.

And it’s about time the Rich White American Men realize that when they take something from the Women of America — the Women of America will fight back.

Namaste,

Barbara

PHOTO: REX/SHUTTERSTOCK.

When Republican Senator Jeff Flake held a town hall meeting in his Arizona district Thursday night, he was hounded about his stance on Planned Parenthood funding. In fact, a 16-year-old girl schooled Flake on women’s health care, and it was just beautiful.

Flake (like all but two Republican senators) voted in favor of a law President Trump signed Thursday allowing states to block health clinicsthat perform abortions from receiving federal Title X family-planning money. The law reverses a previous rule put in place by the Obama administration and could make it even more difficult for low-income people in conservative states to access birth control, well-woman exams, cancer screenings, and other services.

Deja Foxx was well aware of Flake’s support for keeping money from specific health clinics, and she spoke up accordingly at his town hall. She began by laying out a few key differences between Flake and herself.

“I just want to state some facts,” she said to the senator. “I’m a young woman; you’re a middle-aged man. I’m a person of color, and you’re white. I come from a background of poverty, and I didn’t always have parents to guide me through life; you come from privilege.”

She then asked, “I’m wondering, as a Planned Parenthood patient and someone who relies on Title X, who you are clearly not, why is it your right to take away my right…?” Cheers from the crowd were too loud to hear the rest of her question, but you get the gist.

“Well thank you. I’m glad to hear of my privileged childhood,” Senator Flake responded, pointing out that he’s one of 11 kids and paid for college on his own.

“Privilege comes in many forms,” Deja retorted without skipping a beat, garnering more cheers from the crowd.

Deciding to stop blatantly denying his white male privilege, Flake said, “You bet it does, and I’ve had a lot of advantages that others haven’t. What I want is to make sure that everyone can realize the American Dream that all of us have been successful in.” Not buying it, Deja asked: If Planned Parenthood is helping her reach the American Dream, why would he deny her its services?

Watch the full video below to hear all the 16-year-old’s passionate words.

At a patient roundtable earlier on Thursday, Deja shared why Planned Parenthood is so important to her. “I am a ‘youth on their own’ — meaning I don’t live with my parents or have a permanent home,” she said in a transcript provided by Planned Parenthood. “So when I needed birth control and reproductive health care, I didn’t have anyone to help me navigate the health care system.” Because she didn’t have access to her state insurance card, her care was completely covered by Title X funds, she said.

Deja also explained why she attended the patient roundtable in the first place: “I’m here today because I want to make sure that every person — no matter where they come from, whether they have a family, or money, or great health insurance, or any health insurance at all — can still get the care and information they need.”

Deja plans to study political science in college and eventually run for office, “because someone has got to stop these political attacks on our reproductive rights.”

May 7, 2016 by IdealisticRebel

No Honor in Killing

The issue of The War on Women is happening all over the world. It looks different in every country but it still exists everywhere: it is still the disrespect and even hatred of women by men.

In America, it is pay inequality and the glass ceiling. It is also the fact that we are the only citizens who are not legally equal.

Often women are not given an education, and in some countries, women’s bodies are controlled and the government decides if they have children and how many. In other countries, a wife is immolated upon the briar of her dead husband. In some other countries, girls and women are sold because the family is too poor and there is not enough food. In yet other countries, female genital mutilation is performed to make a girl marriageable and to ensure she will not enjoy sex; in others, acid is thrown in a girl’s face to disfigure her because she said no to a young man; and in some a woman is killed in a so-called honor killing to save face for the family. In some countries, men buy little girls to have sex with them because they are pedophiles.

Think about it. It is the most disgusting list of crimes. I can barely think of a more despicable list. Fathers, Brothers, Uncles, Grandfathers look the other way; some participate; some organize the events. Misogyny has existed for many millennia and I realize it will not go away over night. But we must stand up to it. We must speak out. We must do whatever we can to help each woman who is being used, sold or brutalized.

Turning the world light on each incident is a good place to begin. Pressuring police in various countries to arrest and courts to convict perpetrators is also a righteous action.

Women, stand up for each other. Feminist men, stand up, speak up and be the brave souls we know you are and help women everywhere to become free, to live free and to pass that on to their daughters.

Namaste,

Barbara

Pakistan police arrest 14 in ‘honor killing’ of teen said to have helped bride to elope

By Aamir Iqbal and Tim Craig May 5

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — More than a dozen leaders of a small village in northwestern Pakistan were arrested Thursday and charged with burning a teenage girl to death because she helped one of her friends elope, security officials said.The crime, which is renewing attention on Pakistan’s horrific record of protecting women and children from abuse, took place on the outskirts of Abbottabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.Khurram Rasheed, police chief for the northern district of Abbottabad, said Thursday that the body of Ambreen Riasat was found in a burned van in the tourist resort of Donga Gali on April 29, the Associated Press reported. Her exact age was in dispute.A graphic photo of the teenager’s charred remains quickly circulated online. It appeared as though the girl’s arms had been bound before she was set on fire.Initially, police suspected that she may have been raped by a scorned boyfriend or as part of a family dispute. But Saeed Wazir, the regional police chief in Abbottabad, said Thursday that the killing was a “pre-planned act” involving 14 village leaders. Wazir said the entire village council had sanctioned the act to send a message to other minors.“They said she must be burnt alive to make a lesson for other girls,” he said.In an act of defiance against Pakistan’s strict Islamic and paternal customs, Wazir said, the victim had helped one of her friends secretly marry her boyfriend. The bride “didn’t obey her father’s will and did a love marriage at court with a guy,” he said.

After the bride’s father found out, he requested that village elders investigate. In many parts of Pakistan, women and girls are expected to receive their father’s consent before marrying.

The village elders called a meeting, which is referred to as a Jirga. Under Pashtun culture in Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan, such gatherings are often held to try to reach consensus on how best to resolve local disputes. At times, the meetings also become a form of street justice.

According to Wazir, the village elders investigating the marriage quickly discovered that the victim had helped her friend evade her father’s will. The elders decided the victim needed to be punished for not disclosing her role in the marriage.

Several men then dragged the teenager out of her house and tied her into the van, Wazir said.

“Despite the requests and pleas from her parents, villagers forcibly brought her out and set her afire while roping her to the seat of the vehicle,” he said.

Both the leader of the Jirga and the father of the newlywed girl were arrested, Wazir said. A dozen other men who participated in the Jirga also were charged, he added.

It was not immediately clear whether the new bride or her husband were punished.

The case represents a troublesome expansion of mob-like tactics that women can face in Pakistan when they disobey their parents or extended family members.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 8,694 girls and women have died in so-called honor killings here between 2004 and 2015. Those crimes involved revenge killings for dishonoring a family, village or local custom.

About one-fourth of those cases involved the death of a minor. Although most common in remote areas, honor killings still occur in Pakistan even in larger, more progressive cities. The problem was highlighted recently in the Oscar-winning film “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.”

The documentary profiles a 18-year-old woman who was beaten and shot by her father and uncle in Punjab province after she married a man against their wishes. The woman, Saba, survived. Her father and uncle were arrested but later freed, according to HBO Documentary Films.

After he saw the film, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to end honor killings.

Earlier this year, Sharif’s political party, Pakistan Muslim League-N, pushed through a women’s rights bill in Punjab province. The legislation, strongly opposed by the religious community, establishes a 24-hour domestic abuse hotline and network of shelters offering housing, first aid and counseling for women.

Still, a horrific wave of abuse continues.

On Sunday, Punjab police arrested a man and charged him with killing his wife, who was seven months pregnant, the Express Tribune newspaper reported. Using a club, the man apparently beat the woman to death after she refused to allow him to take a second wife.

Also in Punjab over the weekend, a man tossed acid onto a 37-year-old woman, resulting in burns over 30 percent of her body. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that the woman’s nephew is the main suspect. The man apparently wanted to marry one of the woman’s daughters – his cousin — but was refused.

“He was annoyed with his maternal aunt for turning down his marriage proposal,” Azhar Akram, a police officer in Multan, told Dawn.

Craig reported from Kabul.

March 7, 2016 by IdealisticRebel

Anti-Abortion laws don’t decrease abortions

The Return of the D.I.Y. Abortion

DURING oral arguments last week before the Supreme Court in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, Justice Elena Kagan noted that she was struck by the clear relationship between abortion restrictions in Texas and the closing of abortion clinics. “It’s almost like the perfect controlled experiment as to the effect of the law, isn’t it?” she said. “It’s like you put the law into effect, 12 clinics closed. You take the law out of effect, they reopen.”

How women respond to these closings, however, is another story.

We do not have large enough surveys to discern behavior in different states or to track how it has changed over time — and in any case, people may not feel comfortable sharing the truth in a survey.

Google searches can help us understand what’s really going on. They show a hidden demand for self-induced abortion reminiscent of the era before Roe v. Wade.

This demand is concentrated in areas where it is most difficult to get an abortion, and it has closely tracked the recent state-level crackdowns on abortion.

In 2015, in the United States, there were about 119,000 searches for the exact phrase “how to have a miscarriage.” There were also searches for other variants — “how to self-abort” — and for particular methods. Over all, there were more than 700,000 Google searches looking into self-induced abortions in 2015.

For comparison, there were some 3.4 million searches for abortion clinics and, according to estimates by the Guttmacher Institute, there are around one million legal abortions a year.

The 700,000 searches included about 160,000 asking how to get abortion pills through unofficial channels — searches like “buy abortion pills online” and “free abortion pills.”

There were tens of thousands of searches looking into abortion by herbs like parsley or by vitamin C. There were some 4,000 searches looking for directions on coat hanger abortions, including about 1,300 for the exact phrase “how to do a coat hanger abortion.” There were also a few hundred looking into abortion through bleaching one’s uterus and punching one’s stomach.

Search rates for self-induced abortion were fairly steady from 2004 through 2007. They began to rise in late 2008, coinciding with the financial crisis and the recession that followed. They took a big leap in 2011, jumping 40 percent. The Guttmacher Institute singles out 2011 as the beginning of the country’s recent crackdown on abortion; 92 provisions that restrict access to abortion were enacted. There was not a comparable increase in searches for self-induced abortions in Canada, which has not cracked down.

Of course, we cannot know from Google searches how many women successfully give themselves abortions, but evidence suggests that a significant number may. One way to test this is to compare abortion and birth data.

In 2011, the last year with complete state-level abortion data, women living in states with few abortion clinics had many fewer legal abortions.

Compare the 10 states with the most abortion clinics per capita (a list that includes New York and California) to the 10 states with the fewest abortion clinics per capita (a list that includes Mississippi and Oklahoma).

The number of new state laws that restrict abortion spiked in 2011. Women living in states with the fewest abortion clinics had 54 percent fewer legal abortions — a difference of 11 abortions for every 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44.

Women living in states with the fewest abortion clinics also had more live births. However, the difference was not enough to make up for the lower number of abortions. There were six more live births for every 1,000 women of childbearing age.

In other words, there appear to have been some missing pregnancies in parts of the country where it was hardest to get an abortion. Self-induced abortions could be playing a role, although more research must be done on rates of pregnancy and unintentional miscarriage in different regions.

One recent survey in Texas also reported a surprisingly high number of attempted self-induced abortions. It found that 4.1 percent of Texas women were sure or suspected that their best friend had tried a self-induced abortion. The researchers asked about best friends because women may not feel comfortable admitting their own attempts. In fact, so much secrecy surrounds abortion today that it is likely that many women would not know that their closest friends had tried a self-induced abortion.

According to another survey, which was published in Sociological Science, 34 percent of Americans who have been involved in an abortion — either they had one or they were the potential father — disclosed this to no one else. Among those who did tell others, they told an average of 1.2 people. We can expect that people would be even less likely to inform friends and family members about self-induced abortions.

No one has the right to tell any woman what to do with her body. This is pure misogyny. Some women just don’t want to have children. They know whether or not they are ready to have children or not. If we ever get a 100% successful birth control, we will have less abortions. Abortions have been performed since the beginning of time in all civilizations and cultures. Women have always fought to control their bodies and their reproductive experiences. We can’t go back to the self abortion because we will have a spike in the number of women who die from the complications of the procedure. They people will scream again because women are dying. We are in a crazy circle of cause and effect. This decision is a woman’s decision, not a societal decision.

Stop the War on Women

Namaste,

Barbara

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abortion

December 10, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

The War on Women is Global

Tomorrow is human rights day and there is celebration except that human rights are disappearing and unless we stop these horrid actions, they could disappear. I am bringing you a horrible story but we must understand the misogyny we are up against so that we can educate people and so that we can show how unethical behavior like this is. This story came from a Persian website LAHIG. This was a court decision.

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Jihadists want to take us back to the barberie of the Middle Ages and this is a good example why that can never happen.

Iranian woman to be stoned to death as world marks UN ‘Human Rights Day’

By Benjamin Weinthal

Published December 10, 2015

FoxNews.com

stoningpic

For this photo, an Iranian woman symbolically dressed up as a victim of death by stoning as part of a protest by the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Brussels. (Reuters)

As the world marks International Human Rights Day on Thursday, Iran is continuing its execution spree with the announcement that a woman has been sentenced to death by stoning.

The gruesome penalty, in which the wrongdoer is buried up to their shoulders and pelted with rocks, was first reported on the Persian-language Iranian website LAHIG. The woman, who was identified only by the initials “A.Kh,” was convicted of being complicit in her husband’s murder.

An Iranian criminal court in Rasht, the capital city of the northern province of Gilan, handed down the brutal sentence.

“The rate of executions in Iran has not decreased in the last few years, it has increased,” Maryam Nayeb Yazdi, a prominent Canadian-Iranian human rights activist based in Toronto, told FoxNews.com. “Although stoning has become more rare in Iran, such sentences are still being issued by Iranian judges. The probability of a stoning sentence to be carried out is slim due to the international sensitivity of the issue; there is a great chance her sentence may be ‘converted’ to death by hanging.”

“The rate of executions in Iran has not decreased in the last few years, it has increased.”

– Maryam Nayeb Yazdi, Iranian-Canadian activist

Iran is believed to have imposed death by stoning on at least 150 people since the Islamic Revolution in 1980, according to the International Committees against Execution and Stoning.

“We need to note that an official Iranian website released the stoning sentence news, and we should question the regime’s motives for doing so,” said Nayeb Yazdi, who runs the translation blog Persian2English and works with the international NGO Iran Human Rights. “The stoning sentence is an indication of the Iranian regime’s continued war against women in Iran. Arbitrary executions in Iran must be on top of the agenda in any dialogue between Iran and the West.”

After a widespread public-pressure campaign in the West in 2010, Iran dropped the stoning penalty against a 43-year-old Iranian woman. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was sentenced to stoning for alleged adultery. Her case remains shrouded in judicial mystery and it is unclear if she will still be executed.

“Whether or not one supports the nuclear deal with Iran, it is astonishing that the West cultivates an ever-closer alliance with a theocratic regime widely known for its abysmal human rights record and aggressive behavior in the region,” Julie Lenarz, executive director of the UK-based Human Security Center told FoxNews.com. “They hang men for the “crime” of writing poems; or engaging in peaceful protest; or loving someone of the same sex.

“Women are stoned for being raped and Iranian law even allows for juvenile executions. Iran is averaging three hangings per day at the moment and remains a pariah state with no regard for human life,” she added. “In a despicable form of moral myopia, the gold rush for business, as the international sanctions regime begins to unravel, has made Western governments blind to the suffering of ordinary Iranians at the hands of the Ayatollahs.”

The UN’s Human Rights Day is observed every year on Dec. 10 and commemorates the day in 1948 on which the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Benjamin Weinthal reports on human rights in the Middle East. He is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow Benjamin on Twitter@BenWeinthal

Whether this woman is truly guilty or not, her basic human rights are being stripped from her and she is at the mercy of the Iranian court system. This is cruel and unusual punishment and please pray for her. She does not have the protections that American women have. SHAME ON YOU, IRAN.

October 19, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

The Gender Wage Gap Continues

October-07-15

Study Finds US Gender Wage Gap Persists

Data compiled by the US Census Bureau this week once again demonstrates a gender wage gap, showing that American women who work full-time, year-round jobs on average earn 79 cents for every dollar paid to men. This loss in wages amounts to an average of $10,762 annually for white women, and is significantly greater for women of color.

The data, analyzed by the National Partnership for Women and Families, reveals women with full-time, year-round employment receive far less than their male counterparts, earning roughly $39,621 yearly compared to men whose wages exceed $50,000. The pay disparity is even greater for women of color. Overall, African American women earn just 60 cents on the dollar and Latinas a mere 55 cents.

The need to close the gender wage gap could not be more critical. Not only do women comprise nearly half of the paid work force in the US, but they also head more than 15.2 million households, 4,658,047 of which fall below the poverty line. With the additional $10,762 annually in found wages, women breadwinners would earn enough money for approximately 83 more weeks of food, over a year’s worth of rent and an extra 4,635 gallons of gas.

That gap is even starker for women of color. Full-time working African American women earn an average 60 cents for every dollar paid to a white man, and Latinas earn a startling 55 cents. These gaps amount to losses of tens of thousands of dollars for women each year.

“This study confirms that a punishing wage gap persists for women in every corner of the country and the costs for women, their families and our national and state economies are significant,” said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families. “America’s women and families- and our nation- cannot afford to wait any longer for the fair and family friendly measures that would help.”

Media Resources: Media Resources: US Census Bureau 9/16/15; National Partnership Data; National Partnership Press Release 9/16/15; Feminist Newswire 9/1/15

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September 11, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

What College Women Should Know

A 2015 Washington Post – Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 1 of every 5 women in college — 20% — experience either rape or attempted rape while in school.

What can a young woman — or her parents — do to ensure that the college chosen takes this problem seriously, and is poised to assist and prevent?

Here are 5 things they can look for (from Ms. Magazine):

Read the schools annual crime reports. By federal law, any college or university which receives federal funds must collect statistics on certain crime,s including sexual assault. These reports must be published, and many schools do so on the school’s website. YOu can also use the Dept of Education’s Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool. (Note: fewer reported incidents do not necessarily mean fewer actual incidents; a lot depends on the climate of the school, and how open they are to such reports. But it’s a place to start.
Read the campus sexual misconduct policy. Title IX requires that schools mush both adopt and publish grievance procedures, and thoroughly explain how a student may make a complaint. There also must be investigation and resolution procedures, and protocols for disciplinary actions against the perpetrators. It’s important to know how your school defines “consent”. It’s also useful to see what the minimum penalties are for sexual assault vs other offenses, and whether the school has actual met those criterion. By federal law, survivors of sexual assault are required to have no-contact orders and housing available to protect them after an assault, and it’s important to know if your school complies.
Find out what campus health and emergency services are available to sexual assault survivors. Ideally, there should be a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) on staff, or at the least an agreement with a local hospital to provide one. Will the school provide STI and HIV testing, or offer pregnancy test or emergency contraceptives? Is there access to a facility which can search for all the known substances used in drug-facility rape? Ideally, all these services should be free of charge for survivors.
Meet your school’s Title IX Coordinator. Every school must have one, and if the coordinator does not have time to meet with you, it may be a sign that they are over-extended and unable to affectively do their job. If you do meet with the coordinator, ask if the school is under investigation, or has entered into a voluntary compliance agreement.
Look for student activist groups. Peers can be an important resource. Many schools are safer because of student-led prevention and bystander trainings, task forces, social justice clubs, gender and sexual diversity programs, or a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) with student involvement.

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February 2, 2015 by IdealisticRebel

LIke a Girl

This is still my Monday Morning mental journey. Yesterday during the Super Bowl, Always ran a shortened version of this Video as a Commercial. It is so good, and so pertinent to the War on Women, which starts with the War on Girls, that I thought that women and men deserved to be able to see it, experience it and think about it for the rest of their lives.

Being a female is not being less than. It is being Equal.

My compliments to the people who put this fantastic video together, and the brilliance of running it at the Super Bowl, when the testosterone concentration in America is perhaps at its highest.

Let’s make a #LikeAGirl mean only “be the best you that you can be”.

January 22, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

The Continuing War on Women

Women need to unite to regain our rights.

Despite the persistent gender gap in opinion polls and mounting criticism of their hostility to women’s rights, Republicans are not backing off their assault on women’s equality and well-being. New laws in some states could mean a death sentence for a pregnant woman who suffers a life-threatening condition. But the attack goes well beyond abortion, into birth control, access to health care, equal pay and domestic violence.
Republicans seem immune to criticism. In an angry speech last month, John Boehner, the House speaker, said claims that his party was damaging the welfare of women were “entirely created” by Democrats. Earlier, the Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, sneered that any suggestion of a G.O.P. “war on women” was as big a fiction as a “war on caterpillars.”

But just last Wednesday, Mr. Boehner refuted his own argument by ramming through the House a bill that seriously weakens the Violence Against Women Act. That followed the Republican push in Virginia and elsewhere to require medically unnecessary and physically invasive sonograms before an abortion, and Senate Republicans’ persistent blocking of a measure to better address the entrenched problem of sex-based wage discrimination.

On Capitol Hill and in state legislatures, Republicans are attacking women’s rights in four broad areas.

ABORTION On Thursday, a House subcommittee denied the District of Columbia’s Democratic delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, a chance to testify at a hearing called to promote a proposed federal ban on nearly all abortions in the District 20 weeks after fertilization. The bill flouts the Roe v. Wade standard of fetal viability.

Seven states have enacted similar measures. In Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a law that bans most abortions two weeks earlier. Each measure will create real hardships for women who will have to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy before learning of major fetal abnormalities or risks to their own health.

These laws go a cruel step further than the familiar Republican attacks on Roe v. Wade. They omit reasonable exceptions for a woman’s health or cases of rape, incest or grievous fetal impairment. These laws would require a woman seeking an abortion to be near death, a standard that could easily delay medical treatment until it is too late.

All contain intimidating criminal penalties, fines and reporting requirements designed to scare doctors away. Last year, the House passed a measure that would have

Stop. Stop trying to control women

allowed hospitals receiving federal money to refuse to perform an emergency abortion even when a woman’s life was at stake. The Senate has not taken up that bill, fortunately.

ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE Governor Brewer also recently signed a bill eliminating public funding for Planned Parenthood. Arizona law already barred spending public money on abortions, which are in any case a small part of the services that Planned Parenthood provides. The new bill denies the organization public money for nonabortion services, like cancer screening and family planning, often the only services of that kind available to poor women.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature tried a similar thing in 2011, and were sued in federal court by a group of clinics. The state argues that it is trying to deny money to organizations that “promote” abortions. That is nonsense. Texas already did not give taxpayer money for abortions, and the clinics that sued do not perform abortions.

Last year, the newly installed House Republican majority rushed to pass bills (stopped by the Democratic-led Senate) to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood and Title X. That federal program provides millions of women with birth control, lifesaving screening for breast and cervical cancer, and other preventive care. It is a highly effective way of preventing the unintended pregnancies and abortions that Republicans claim to be so worried about.

EQUAL PAY Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, the epicenter of all kinds of punitive and regressive legislation, signed the repeal of a 2009 law that allowed women and others to bring lawsuits in state courts against pay discrimination, instead of requiring them to be heard as slower and more costly federal cases. It also stiffened penalties for employers found guilty of discrimination.

He defended that bad decision by saying he did not want those suits to “clog up the legal system.” He turned that power over to his government, which has a record of hostility toward workers’ rights.

President Obama has been trying for three years to update and bolster the 1963 Equal Pay Act to enhance remedies for victims of gender-based wage discrimination, shield employees from retaliation for sharing salary information with co-workers, and mandate that employers show that wage differences are job-related, not sex-based, and driven by business necessity.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Last month, the Senate approved a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, designed to protect victims of domestic and sexual abuse and bring their abusers to justice. The disappointing House bill omits new protections for gay, Indian, student and immigrant abuse victims that are contained in the bipartisan Senate bill. It also rolls back protections for immigrant women whose status is dependent on a spouse, making it more likely that they will stay with their abusers, at real personal risk, and ends existing protections for undocumented immigrants who report abuse and cooperate with law enforcement to pursue the abuser.

Whether this pattern of disturbing developments constitutes a war on women is a political argument. That women’s rights and health are casualties of Republican policy is indisputable.

—Excerpted from the New York Times

This is the second time we have picketed many of our issues

There are no doubts that there is a War on Women. There was one in the 60’s and 70’s. We protest to Take Back the Night. These protests are organized because women need to be able to be out at night without fear of violence, such as rape. 95% of rape victims are women. When a woman says no, it is no. Forcing sex on her is a crime. If a woman has too much to drink or has done some drugs, if she says no, it is no. A woman wears a mini skirt to a party? She is not advertising, she is being a fashonista. She has the right to say no. There is never a reason for a man to ignore a woman saying no. You wanting sex with a woman in these circumstances is not because you are a stud, she is too hot to leave alone. It has to do with the perp’s need for power and control. It makes you a sexual predator.

Domestic Violence is also a crime. There is never a reason to hit a woman. Abuse can be physical such as slapping, pinching, hitting, punching, kicking, or twisting limbs. Abuse can also be verbal and emotional. This includes demeaning words, telling a woman how stupid she is. It is telling her she is ugly and no other man will want her. It is manipulating her to do what you want her to do. Please refer to previous blogs that you will see in my sidebar for October, 2013. If you are being hit, save some money and keep it hidden well. Call your local hotline for your city. Leave and take your children and go to the shelter. You will receive all you need to be free. You never have to live in violence ever again. Women have legal recourse and you will have support getting a protection order or a restraining order.

Equal pay for equal work. People often think this is funny. But woman work as hard as a man and sometimes harder. Even with the Equal pay law that President Obama has signed and it is law women earn less. This is left over from the sixties and seventies. Corporations felt men where heads of households and if the wife was working, then she was just doing it for “pin money?” When we worked to get women the right to leave the house and go to work it was so that every woman had a choice. That she had the right to do what would make her happy. So staying home raising kids was fine and so was going to work.But our wonderful corporations made it almost necessary for a woman to work. Two incomes are needed to survive.

Sexual harrassment is a federal crime. If you have a supervisor or someone else and they want sex from you and you are not interested just say no. If he makes it plain that your job or salary or promotion are at risk you are being sexually harrassed. Go to Human Resources and file a complaint. It is your right. You can’t be fired because you said no. They may try to tell you that but it isn’t true. Get a lawyer.

Remember that being a woman is something to be proud of, just as being a man is something to be proud of if you are not sexist or racist. You have the right, as a woman, to live freely in a place where you or you and your children are safe from violence.

August 27, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The War on Women

The republicans live in a world of “them” and us. But there is One World and One human species. Hate is not Holy. Stand up and speak out!

July 26, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Gender Bias

Sexual harrassment is a crime and it is unacceptav=ble

Sexual harrassment is a crime and it is unacceptable

Women have a lot happening these days. We are working to make sure that we become legally equal citizens for the first time in the history of America. We still earn less than a man for the same work; even though our President Obama has signed a new bill into law, laws have to be enforced. Many women are wives, mothers and often workers in the workplace. Yes, we have a choice. We get to choose to stay home with children, go to work and not have children, or to work outside the home and have children. I have 3 daughters and they have each made the choice that works best for them.

Now we have candidate Weiner sexting with women. He is not sure of how many women. So we could conclude that these relationships were so unimportant to him he can’t remember how many there were. I respect his wife and her decision. It wouldn’t be mine, but this is feminism. A woman has the right to decide what she will put up with and what she can’t take for another moment.

Then there is Mayor Filner of San Diego. Mayor Filner who has a plethora of women coming out with ugly stories of what he did to them. These are all professional women; one is a Rear Admiral. The accusations include, but are not limited to, touching the posterior, licking of the face, putting a woman into a headlock, trying to force a kiss on an unwilling woman. It makes me sick. I wonder what it takes to go from Filner’s behavior to Ariel Castro. Castro held three women here in Cleveland as slaves for a decade. There is one child who survived from his raping one of these women. Other fetuses were killed. To protect the young women from the further trauma of having to testify, the court has given Castro a life sentence plus 1000 years. It was done to save the women from more victimization.

Mayor Filner states that his behavior is in contrast to his belief i n equality, and justice. He apologized to the community and the women. Is it enough? I fear not. Years of disrespect of women doesn’t just stop.

Filner is accepting responsibility for his actions, he says. He will be entering behavioral therapy on August 5. He is not planning on stepping down as mayor. A two week stay in a rehab center isn’t learning not to be a sex offender. It is a vacation. He loudly declares this is his first step in becoming a better person…in two weeks.

These are men who are uncomfortable with women in power and need to intimidate them. It is wrong morally and criminally to use this behavior to keep women in their place.

If anything like this has ever happened to you in the workplace, report it. No man has the right to touch you in any unwanted way.

If you have been touched, licked, patted in the workplace and if it makes you feel as though your job is at risk, report it. These actions are not part of your job description and must not be tolerated. Your self-respect is being walked on and you are being used. It is scary, but there are women’s organizations who will help and the ACLU will help and possibly be your legal council. Take care of yourself and make sure male coworkers are not allowed into your personal space.

Can you answer the questions?

By the way, this is all part of the WAR ON WOMEN. You remember the war: the one Congress is attempting to use against every American woman. These conditions are part of the reason why we are not legally equal. And they are why we still need to fight to be equal.